As part of its celebration for being on the air for 30 years, ESPN will debut a series called 30 for 30, in which 30 accomplished filmmakers treat some of the biggest sports stories of the past 30 years with one-hour documentaries.

Among the pieces will be one on the generation of fantasy sports. Although the release refers to fantasy sports in general, the synopsis of the feature seems to indicate that fantasy baseball will actually be the focus.

Here is the word-for-word entry under Silly Little Game by Adam Kurland and Lucas Jensen on the release linked to above:

“Fantasy Sports is a $4 billion dollar industry that boasts more than 20 million participants and a league for almost every sport imaginable. But for all this success, the story of the game’s inception is little known. The modern fantasy leagues can be traced back to a motley group of writers and academics who met at La Rotisserie Francaise in New York City to form a baseball league of their own: The Rotisserie League. The game quickly grew in popularity, and with the growing use and popularity of the Internet, the “Founding Fathers” never foresaw how their creation would take off and ultimately leave them behind. Innovative filmmakers Adam Kurland and Lucas Jansen will chronicle the early development and ultimate explosion of Rotisserie Baseball, and shine a light on its mostly unnoticed innovators.”

We know, of course, that fantasy football didn’t sprout from the Rotisserie session mentioned above but from Oakland Raiders beat writers and team officials years before. Either way, though, it should make for interesting viewing.

The series is set to begin in October, though no date appears to be available for the airing of Silly Little Game.

Tags: 30 for 30, espn, fantasy sports, fantasy sports business, fantasy sports industry, rotisserie baseball

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 at 8:34 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.